One of the biggest worries when moving to a new platform is your site going dark during the switch. With the right approach, you can change over with little or no downtime.
The key principle is simple: keep your old site live until your new one is completely ready. Don’t take anything down prematurely.
First, build your full FastSites site and review every page. Check it on both desktop and mobile, and make sure all your content, links, and images are in place. Your old site stays untouched and online during this entire stage.
Only when you’re satisfied do you point your domain to FastSites by updating its DNS records. Because DNS changes take time to propagate, some visitors will briefly see the old site and some the new one during the transition — but since both are complete and working, no one sees a broken or missing site.
Avoid letting your domain expire during this period, and don’t cancel your old hosting until the new site has been live and stable for a few days.
If you’d like us to review your new site before you flip the switch, open a ticket and we’ll take a look.